The Lesson
by Renegader
Summary: Oneshot Yusuke and Kuwabaka show up with a very strange guest, who proves to be the strangest Hiei has ever met. Can it be that behind all their banter and games, the two don't actually hate one another?


Disclaimer: I od ton nwo uY uY ohsukaH dna I reven lliw. –cries-

Hiei snorted. "That is absolutely ridiculous, Kurama," he declared defiantly. "I don't care how bored I am or how fond you are of roses; I will _not_ play 'ring around the rosie' with you."

Kurama looked a bit put out. "It was only a thought," he muttered bitterly.

"Hn. Baka fox."

"Now, now," Kurama chided, "there's no need for name calling. When there is, I'll call for you- or maybe get a bell pull, or a pager…"

"Shut _up_, kitsune."

Hiei was a black haired fire demon, whose hair had a tuft of white in its soft, long, naturally spiked mass. His eyes were deep crimson, and he wore a black wife-beater shirt and black pants, with a white cloth wrapped around his forehead. One of his more remarkable traits was his height; he didn't quite reach above five feet high.

Kurama was a tall young man with flaming red hair, green eyes, and a pink outfit with yellow trim, which clashed horribly with his hair. Though his body was human, Kurama was truly a fox demon who had possessed the body while it was still an unborn child. He was much taller than Hiei, and the two looked rather awkward walking side by side down the street, hands in their pockets.

The two were trying to figure out a way to solve their problem: boredom. The two heard running footsteps behind them and turned to see their two ningen friends, Yusuke and Kuwabara.

"Hey, guys!" Yusuke said as he caught up with them. He was a raven-haired boy of around fifteen, whose chocolate brown eyes radiated with his true spirit: a delinquent. His hair was smoothed back, as usual, and tinted slightly green from the hair gel he used.

The other boy, Kuwabara, had curly bright orange hair styled similar to Elvis Presley's. He seemed adorned with a look with stupidity, as if it came second-nature to his features.

Kurama smiled slightly at the two boys. "Yusuke. Kuwabara," he greeted, acknowledging them both with a respect that was ridiculous, since neither deserved such respect.

Yusuke was grinning idiotically, indicating that he was hiding something from them.

Kuwabara shot a look at his strange friend and grinned in spite of himself.

"Tell us already, foolish bakamon," Hiei muttered.

"Look what Koenma gave me!"

Yusuke dig around in his bag for a minute before producing a small black neko with bright yellow eyes.

"Mrow," it told them, quite unenthusiastically.

"A cat," Hiei noted. "I'd never known you could get yourself so worked up over one puny neko."

The cat hissed at Hiei, revealing her decidedly sharp canine teeth.

Yusuake set the cat down gently and backed away slowly in caution. The cat glanced back at Yusuke for a moment and looked around before closing her eyes.

Hiei raised an eyebrow as the cat's aura shot up so fast that he realized: this was no neko.

The small creature on the ground flickered and disappeared, and a woman instead stood where the cat had- a woman with furry cat ears and two cruelly pointed fangs. She worse a black shirt, dingy-green, loose Capris, dark tights, and thick, black, leather boots. She had soft brown hair and the same golden eyes that the cat had possessed.

Despite all this, Hiei wasn't noticing her slender figure or her defiant expression; he was noticing her aura, which had increased to an enormous size.

The girl turned around to see Yusuke and Kuwabara staring at her. Eyebrows creasing, she looked over her shoulder and saw Hiei and Kurama looking at her as well. She spun around on the, exhasperated.

"_What?!_" she demanded. "So I'm a youkai. Stop _staring!_"

She turned back to Yusuke and Kuwabara, whose eyes had glazed over.

"Oh," she said in an offhand manner. "Don't bother about that; I'm way out of your league."

They continued to stare, and her expression donned a disturbed expression. She slowly moved out of the spot she had been in, which the two boys continued to stare through. However, now they were looking at Hiei and Kurama. Both quickly moved.

Yusuke began to regain what little composure he possessed. Kuwabara, however, was still staring blankly at nothing, a small stream of drool running from one corner of his mouth.

"Why did you bring this girl to us? We don't need some old cat demon slowing us down."

"Be nice, Hiei," Kurama murmured.

The woman's eyes flashed dangerously in the direction of the fire demon. "What did you just call me?" she growled.

"You said you were bored," Yusuke told Hiei, "and Koenma soon after told me to watch over her for a few days. He'd been doing it for a week or so, but now he has to train some inu youkai, and you know how cats and dogs are."

"Why does she need to be watched? Judging by the size of her aura and her self confidence, she can probably take care of herself," Kurama pointed out.

"I need to be watched," the neko replied with dignity, "because I am untrustworthy, and thought most of my powers are bound by Master Koenma, that bind can only pull so far before it breaks. Which means, dimwits (except you redhead; you seem smart), I can only travel so far from Master Koenma, or the bond breaks and I get my powers back. Master Koenma told me that he placed the bond on some fool called 'Yusuke'- is he present?"

Yusuke raised his hand. "That would be me."

"Alright, Master Yusuke. I am under your control- for the mostpart. I am to be polite and address you as 'Master' so long as I am under your care."

Yusuke looked slightly giddy. "Did you guys hear that? She called me 'Master Yusuke'. I've never even been called 'Urameshi-san' before!"

"Don't let it go to your head, punk. Master Koenma recounted to me a long and colorful description of past, which he said consisted of smoking, drinking, fighting, and such."

"So he told you, then." Yusuke looked disappointed.

"Yeah. He did. Well, is anybody going to introduce himself?"

"I'm Kuwabara," the oaf said dreamily beginning to return from his comatose state. "Kazuma Kuwabara."

"Yusuke Urameshi."

"Kurama."

"Hn."

"Hiei, it's rude to keep a lady waiting," Kurama reminded the fire demon.

"Don't boss me around, kitsune."

"I'm sorry about his bad manners," Kurama apologized to the cat demon. "This is Hiei."

"I'm Aiko Kokuhou," the neko replied.

"Nice to meet you, Aiko-sama," Kurma said respectfully. "There are a few things you should probably know about us, assuming you don't already. Kuwabara and Yusuke are humans, I am a kitsune seishou, and Hiei is a kasai youkai. He also has a Jagan."

"A Jagan?" Aiko exclaimed. "Is this true, Hiei?"

"See for yourself," the small youkai smirked, removing the white cloth. Beneath the strip of fabric lay a third eye, which blinked open, revealing a lavender color.

"What does the color mean? Should it be red like your other eyes?" Aiko wondered.

"Don't ask so many questions," Hiei glared.

"Why not?" Aiko challenged defiantly.

"I find it irritating. Also, you just did it again."

Aiko turned to Yusuke. "Master Yusuke, I find that the short one is quite infuriating. May we leave now? It is unseemly to lose one's temper in public."

Yusuke scratched at the back of his neck guiltily. "Actually, Koenma told me about how he bound your powers too, and since Hiei is the fastest on his feet here, he can catch you the easiest. I was simply the delivery boy. As soon as we got within about thirty feet of hiei, the bond was placed on him…"

Aiko said nothing said nothing for several moments and simply stared at Yusuke with a blank expression. "You've _got_ to be kidding," she moaned, sitting down in the middle of the road and placing her head in her hands as Hiei watched her, an unreadable look on his face.

"This might actually be fun," he finally said, a wry smile touching his lips.

"Car coming," Kurama announced.

"Car!" Yusuke shouted, running off the road, flailing his arms like a madman. "_**Car!**_"

Kuwabara looked at the green Mercedes heading toward them and ran after Yusuke.

Hiei and Kurama walked off the road calmly.

Aiko hadn't moved.

Yusuke was panicking. "Aiko, _get off the road_!"

"Aiko!" Kurama shouted.

"Hiei darted out into the road on his swift feet as the car was less than a foot away from the endangered neko.

Meanwhile, Yusuke was waving his arms around like a psychopath for the car to stop.

Hiei appeared on the other side of the road, seemingly holding something.

Yusuke continued to holler at the car.

Hiei turned, his face bearing more cold acceptance than remorse. "This is all I could get," he said, holding out his prize. "The license place."

The driver of the Mercedes hit the breaks just over where Aiko had been, sticking his head out the window. "What's the matter?" he asked Yusuke, concerned.

"Dude, you ran over my cat demon!" Yusuke wailed at him. "You _killed_ a total_ babe_!"

"Rrowr, watch your mouth," said a nearby tree.

Yusuke walked to the tree and placed a dramatic hand on his forehead. "Aiko, you must let your spirit soar to the heavens, now," he said expansively. "Let your soul leave the earth and be free!"

"Yeah- I don't think so. I'm perfectly intact, and I don't plan on dying this soon. Check under the car; there won't be a body."

Yusuke bent over, looking underneath the Mercedes. "Nope, no body," the spirit-detective reported.

"Told you," the neko replied smugly.

"How in the nine hells did you move so fast?" Yusuke demanded.

"I ran, then jumped in the tree."

"Amazing!" Yusuke exclaimed.

"Thanks. I know."

The car was still planted in the middle of the road. "Well, man? Yusuke asked the bewildered driver. "Move along, you're holding up traffic."

Though there were no other cars around, the driver took one last look at the talking tree and bolted.

Hiei threw aside the license plate, a satisfied smirk on his face. "Time to leave." he remarked to the cat demon. "Come along, wench."

The girl swung down from the tree. She walked up to Hiei, stared at him closely for several moments, and promptly slapped him across the face. She then stalked off muttering about baka fire youkai as Hiei watched her, laying a hand on the red splotch where Aiko had slapped him.

"Damn," Kuwabara murmured. "I'll bet that's the first time anyone's gotten away after hurting Hiei."

Hiei shot a quick 'don't-make-me-kick-your-ass' look at the fool and politely offered for him to be next to try. Kuwabara denied quickly, and Hiei replied with a deadly, "Good," following Aiko, who was leading the way, despite the fact that she had no clue where Hiei was currently residing.

Hiei opened the door to an old, run down house. It wasn't very large, and there were only a few rooms. "This is it?" Aiko asked doubtfully.

"Yeah. You can sleep outside, if you want. Still, wherever you sleep, you must be within a close distance of me at all times. Everyone would be quite disappointed if you managed to escape."

She glared at Hiei, who smiled tauntingly at her.

"Fine then." If her Master wanted to play games, Aiko would show him that she could play too. "I'm taking a bath. Come along, now."

"A- a bath…" he took the idea in. Was that the best she could do? "Alright."

"So, Master Hiei, will you be watching or joining?"

Hiei coughed a bit before replying vehemently, "_Watching._"

The girl sighed theatrically and rolled her eyes. "You just _have_ to spoil all my fun," she pouted with a smile as dimples Hiei hadn't noticed before played across her cheeks.

"I do have a certain reputation for that," Hiei replied, though he felt much less sure of himself. Her smile made his knees weaken.

Once Aiko was done bathing, she hopped up into a tree to comb out her wet hair. Hiei sat against the base of the trunk, staring apathetically at the sunset.

Aiko's voice floated down from the tree. "Master, you are a fire demon, yes?"

"Hai."

"Would you be so kind as to dry my hair then?"

She heard him sigh, and felt a sudden gust of warm breeze, and her rich brown hair was dry.

"Arigatou," she beamed, happy to reduce the dignity of her master.

She peered down at the kasai koorime through the branches of the tree. "Master Hiei, may I ask where you come from?" She sounded as if she was trying to make conversation.

"I'd prefer if you didn't."

"Oh."

Hiei noted the disappointment in her tone and sighed again. "However, if you must have conversation, perhaps I should inquire the same of yourself."

"I don't know," Aiko admitted. "I was very young when I was taken from the place- too young to speak, and I was uninterested in the conversations of adults. It was in some sort of forest, though. I was not with my mother or father there, it was some sort of human village. The woman who had taken care of me had always concealed my ears, but once the humans found out, they banished me. Then I was on my own."

A good part of this sounded excruciatingly familiar to Hiei. "Hn. How boring," he replied.

There was a momentary pause before the girl dropped from the tree, kneeling directly in front or Hiei. She stuck her finger in his face, only a few inches from her own. "With all due respect, Master Hiei, I do believe I'll kill you someday."

He looked at her blankly, unimpressed.

She searched his crimson eyes with her golden ones for a moment, then laughed softly and pressed her lips firmly to his. She felt him stiffen with shock as she continued to kiss him for several more seconds. Then she let go of him and brushed past him on her way back to the old house. She stopped at the door and turned to see that Hiei hadn't moved one inch. He hadn't even breathed, for all she knew.

She laughed at his surprise and said, "You should really learn to loosen up," before going inside.

Hiei hadn't followed Aiko into the house like he should have. He stayed outside and thought. Could it be that he was actually mildly frightened by the girl's confusing demeanor? She had read him like a book with a simple look into his crimson eyes. She had invaded him.

In fact, his Jagan had sensed his own thoughts in her mind- Hiei suddenly stood, outraged at this realization. Her eyes worked the same way his Jagan did! She probably had to have direct eye contact though. Still, if his Jagan hadn't directly sensed her prying into his thoughts, she knew how to use her powers very well.

This was disturbing to Hiei, who sat down once more, thinking. He sighed to himself. He had to do something about this, something to make sure she wasn't in-

He paused before allowing his thoughts to continue: something to make sure she wasn't in love.

Hiei did not like love. He did not know much about it, but he knew it was a form of affection, and the fire demon despised affection; it was both a weakness and an annoyance. So why hadn't he pushed Aiko away when she kissed him?

Aiko was hunting mice in the attic in her cat form when Hiei walked in. He was surprised; he had half expected her to have run away. She looked at him, her neko body sitting before resuming her human-esque form. Hiei gazed at her as she looked right back at him. She suddenly grinned, flashing those dimples at him once more. Hiei felt his heart rate wuicken as his eyes softened.

"Why do you have to do that?" he demanded of her.

Aiko's expression became confused. "Do what?" she asked.

Hiei noted how she cocked her head to one side slightly, trying his best not to find it cute.

When he didn't respond, Aiko became slightly worried. She walked over to him and lay one hand on his shoulder, asking gently, "Master Hiei, are you alright?"

He jumped back from her touch, swearing.

"Is that so?" Aiko asked when he was done, a hint of steel in her eyes.

Hiei looked at her solemnly for a moment, then lowered his eyes in submission by way of apology for his outburst, probably the first time he'd ever done so. somehow, this meant more than any worded apology.

Aiko let it drop. "Hiei, what's wrong?" she asked without the tedious 'Master' attached to his name. This did not currently suit Hiei well. He found it very unsteadying.

"Master," he corrected.

She looked stunned for a moment, then she fixed him with a heated glare. "I don't give a damn about the formal way to address you, you shrimpy little bastard!" she snapped. "What I _do_ care about is what's wrong. Got it? Shall I write it on paper and stick it to my forehead?"

She moved to his side and laid her hand tenderly on his arm in a manner that would prove difficult to break free from. "Now, tell me," she said softly, "What your problem is."

For the first time in his life, Hiei _wanted_ to respond, but couldn't. "Look, it's just something I have to deal with. Think of it like a scar; if you leave it alone for a while, it goes away. I think," he added quiestly.

"There are certain medicines and herbs that reduce scarring." Aiko pointed out.

Hiei laughed, a harsh, raspy sound that surprised even himself.

"Let's see Neosporin reduce the side-effects of love," he muttered so only he could hear.

"Of _what_?"

Hiei looked up at Aiko, and could see on her face the truth; she'd heard him. He silently cursed himself.

"How did you hear me?" he demanded.

She smiled slightly, pointing to the cat ears on top of her head. "I have rather acute ears. I'm surprised you haven't noticed that yet."

He looked away, but the sudden rush of wind caused him to glance back up.

Aiko was gone.

Hiei gritted his teeth in self-induced fury. She had left just like that, and he couldn't even do a thing to stop her?

He stopped and considered it a moment. If she could leave so easily, why did she wait so long to do so?

Hiei's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a pair or warm arms encircled his neck, turning him around. The owner of those arms planted a kiss fully upon his lips, and he returned it dreamily.

Aiko took her arms back, and gently removed Hiei's arms from around her.

"What are you doing?" Hiei asked, surprised.

Her response was a tender smile and a soft, "Farewell," as she disappeared in a black wind.

Hiei stare blanky, uncomprehendingly.

Koenma's voice suddenly rang throughout every vault of his mind: "You have learned your lesson well- which was to love."

Hiei then woke, sitting up. "Hn," he said. "Just a dream."

As he turned a bit, lying back down, he even added, "A really dumb one at that."

But Koenma's voice still rang like a bell through every vault of his mind: "To love."

(A/N): Yep, that's the end of it. I know it isn't my best writing. Hope you liked Aiko- I rather did, myself.


End file.
